Beijing Opening Ceremony

[Kwong]

My BIGGEST bitch was the continuous taped music for the athletes parade, it must have looped over 100 times during the march in, and BAG PIPE music ? Even my Chinese friend had to admit China never invented that musical instrument.

I think music from 5/6 countries or more were played continuously, not just bag pipe music.

[Steve2UK]

Great show - very imaginative......... even if some of the massed people effects came across a tad North Korean "Dear Leader" style - not helped by the goose-stepping military flag-bearers.

I watched it on WETV's cable service in Chiang Mai - mainly on a South African broadcast. I gathered from the commentary that each host country brings in the competing national teams according to its own alphabet - so a question for the Mandarin speakers here: how come the countries whose names begin with "M" (for example) seemed to come in at all kinds of different places in the order? Others seemed to be scattered as well. Obviously, no surprise that it's not A-B-C order, but.......

Edit: Before this thread gets canned as not Thailand-related, I better say how splendid the Thai team looked........

Beijing count how many stroke in the first charater.

eg. 加- Canada is 5 brush, 英 -Britian is 8 brush

Thanks for the explanation, Kwong .

To Nonthaburial - from the commentary I heard, I think the athletes' parade music was from "live" players (from various parts of the world) - I certainly saw occasional cutaway shots of African drummers. Having said that, I'm pretty sure that I heard "Scotland the Brave" played twice by the pipe band (from Dundee, apparently) - but the cameras stayed away from them. At least that aspect reinforces the "world" notion rather than it being a purely Chinese event.........

[wintermute]

I had to read this thread again to catch the undertones. You brits, as always, crack me up. Honest and cynical to a fault. For the record I think the U.K. committee will cobble something together very good for 2012. Not it won't be council housing plans or chavs or rappers. The U.K. is truly the understated man of Europe. Not to boost your egos or anything.

Edited August 9, 2008 by wintermute

[Daffy D]

Anyone know or have a guess how many people in the stadium at the end in total. I think the stadium has a 90 thousand capacity then with all the athletes and organizers I would think the Birdsnest would be in running for the prize of the highest concentration of people in smallest area.

[wintermute]

I do know for certain the stadium was filled to capacity and then some if you count the athletes. Security concerns there must have been outrageous you had 80+ something heads of state and royalty in attendance. I really wish I bought tickets to go see the opening in person.

[Jingthing]

It was a very good show. Probably the most impressive ever.

And only a TOTALITARIAN state could have put on such a show.

Got to ask the Chinese people if it was worth it, I suppose.

I agree, the US uniforms were stupid and ugly. What is American about those silly hats, anyway?

Edited August 10, 2008 by Jingthing

[Heng]

I was expecting more from the self proclaimed 'Ultimate Olympics' is all, with a theme of ONE WORLD ONE DREAM there was not much of the rest of the world.

The entire world (one world) = The Middle Kingdom (heaven, all under heaven, hel_l) = China It's a play on words kind of thing.

[Tinkelbell]

so we've got a rough 60 for 40 against split.... I was just in the 40 I suppose. Maybe it takes alot to amuse me these days, oh to be so simple of mind. At least Bendix has the right idea for once, wrong forum but agree 100% (did I say that?) Maybe if Yao had have slam dunked the kid at the end....?

Count me in, ozsamurai.

This is a classic sample of Bigger is not always Better.

With the 19,000 performers, seems like China throws in every things together. While watching I couldn't help but feel like I'm watching three rings circus, only this one are on the grander scale.

The Chinese guy who was dueling with Sarah Brightham, who is his wardrobe advisor ? fire him immediately.

The opening ceremony was so boring and way tooooooooooooo long. It wasn't much entertaining.

I love the USA athletic uniform, the white cap and the navy blue blazer goes together very well in the avenue of sport. It well represents with the Olympic logo on the right top.

[farang prince]

Every body looking for problems and deep hidden meanings instead of just sitting back and enjoying the show. I would like the complainers just try to put together any type of show, maybe a school play and see how they get on.

As for the goose stepping guys that riled up some people would it have been OK if they had been from the Coldstream guards or Blackwatch Highlanders or for our ex-colonial friends a squad of marines.

Actually that is an interesting concept to have a squad of Marines participate in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. They could have stormed the Olympic Stadium like they were taking Mount Surabatchi. Of course, the Marines would have taken high casualties but they would have had a nice body count of athletes and Olympic officials.

Sorry, couldn't resist poking some fun at my Jarhead friends here in Thai Visa.

[enyaw]

Anyone here in Thailand know if they will rebroadcast the opening ceremonies?

If so when? I missed it and would like to see it.

Thanks,

There is a stream in Divx on video. WTH here's a link.

http://www.ninjavideo.net/video/9077

Awesome!

p.s. launch the helper applet highlighted in red under the screen to view.

Edited August 11, 2008 by enyaw

[londonthai]

read this - the fireworks and screen images were fake

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080811/...tv-3fd0ae9.html

Olympic Fireworks Faked For TV

Parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony were faked, it has emerged.

The global television audience of more than three billion people watched in amazement as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks proceeded through the night sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest stadium - except they were watching a computer animation.

Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images.

Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter.

But in reality they were watching a 3D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce.

It even included a 'camera shake' to mimic the effect of filming from a helicopter.

The dupe was revealed by China's Beijing Times. Speaking to the paper, the man responsible for the animation said he was pleased with the result.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," Gao Xiaolong told the newspaper.

"But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

The designers even added some haziness to simulate the polluted Beijing skyline.

Broadcasters around the world had no choice but to show the footage because it all came from one feed provided by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting - the organisation responsible for filming the games.

The ceremony has also been strongly criticised by architect Ai Weiwei, who helped design the Bird's Nest stadium.

Writing on his blog, Mr Ai described the ceremony as "a recycling of the rubbish of fake classical culture tradition; a sacrilegious visual garbage dump and an insult to the spirit of liberty; low class sound play that's just noise pollution".

He was directly critical of China's ruling communist party, characterising the ceremony as "a showcase of the reincarnation of the Marxist imperialism; the ultimate paragon of an all embracing culture of fascist totalitarianism; an encyclopaedia that encompasses total defeat in intellectual spirit."

Mr Ai helped design the stadium alongside Swiss architect firm, Herzog and de Meuron.

But since then, he has become an outspoken blogger against the Olympics and the Chinese regime. Unusually, he has not been censored by the authorities.

Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead.

[Spee]

read this - the fireworks and screen images were fake

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080811/...tv-3fd0ae9.html

Olympic Fireworks Faked For TV

Parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony were faked, it has emerged.

Thanks for being the only other person besides me who has made this observation.

It is so consistent with everything else that the communist central government believes and puts into action. Build and publicize the charades for the billions in the outside world to see and spread the koolaid through the media talking heads who do nothing but regurgitate the propaganda. Minimize the real truth exposure to only the relatively few who can more or less be kept in a controlled environment.

It is also confirmed that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not only corrupt through and through, they will go to any lengths to make the Olympics a bigger fraud than it has already become.

But hey ... what the heck ... who am I to wreck a faux-beautiful, politically correct, kum-ba-ya moment for those living in a permanent state of delusion? Forget what I said ... feel free to delude away.

[Heng]

If the world can handle fake Pfizer, Pratt & Whitney, Sony, Honda, etc. etc. products counterfeited in CHINA, then I don't think a little "fake" CGI is going to hurt you.

Resume your original position (bent over).

[farang prince]

Well, now that CGI has been used in the opening ceremonies of an Olympics, the British can use it in 2012 to simulate sunshine and blue skies.

[dingdongrb]

Well it appears that the fireworks were not the only thing that was a fake. I just read this on MSN... It appears that the singing done by the little girl in the red dress was actually lip-synching....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26153578

[Heng]

Edited August 12, 2008 by Heng

[ozsamurai]

Faked fireworks

Milli Vanilli lipsyncing

put all that aside, its still sucked!! It just wasn't entertaining, too long and too repetative. Now that I know they used CG it makes it worse, at least if they had made it spectacular, then they could have justified the CG, and silenced the critics. Now it stinks even harder!!

[DaoDao]

I think Zhang Yimou did a great job in directing a rather artistic statement instead of a political one....

[Jingthing]

I just had to share this with y'all. Its from a right wing American columnist George Will, but I think he is on to something. There was something really, really CREEPY about the 2008 drummers!

This year's August upheaval (Russia war with Georgia) coincides, probably not coincidentally, with the world's preoccupation with that charade of international comity, the Olympics. For only the third time in 72 years (Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980), the Games are being hosted by a tyrannical regime, the mind of which was displayed in the opening ceremonies featuring thousands of drummers, each face contorted with the same grotesquely frozen grin. It was a tableau of the miniaturization of the individual and the subordination of individuality to the collective. Not since the Nazi's 1934 Nuremberg rally, which Leni Riefenstahl turned into the film "Triumph of the Will," has tyranny been so brazenly tarted up as art.

A worldwide audience of billions swooned over the Beijing ceremony. Who remembers 1934? Or anything.

Washington Post

[bonobo]

I think they missed the point entirely. Its an INTERNATIONAL event hosted in China, not a Chinese Olympics..... no multi-cultural content at all apart from the last few minutes with the umbrellas of kids faces..... It looked more like a propaganda show, starting with we invented paper to we are now walking on Mars, us us us!!

Hmmmm..

BINGO! My thoughts exactly. This was a "Look at us, we are CHINA" ceremony, and a pretyt boring one at that.

I liked the printing press, but I was not overwhelmed, and I liked the people walking on the globe. But now with the little singer not being cute enough for tv, and the fake footprints in teh sky (I actually thought they looked fake when I saw them), I am really disappointed. Barcelona, Lillehammer, and Albertville were all much better while spending far less. I even liked Atlanta and Athens better.

[Payboy]

Faked fireworks

Milli Vanilli lipsyncing

did anyone mention cardboard dumplings yet......

[ozsamurai]

everytime I log on to this post I see some chinese call names reading it. Maybe they are tracking it... counter intelligence on TV.... wow!! Maybe that will improve the closing ceremony, the next charade of international comity

Oz

[Heng]

Sounds like a lot of whingy wounded egos on this thread. Probably cognitive dissonance from exporting all of those jobs and importing way too much Chinese made junk (and typically running negative trade and national debt balances while at it) over the past 20+ years.